INSPIRATION

Noonday upon the Alpine meadows

Pours its avalanche of Light

And blazing flowers: the very shadows

Translucent are and bright.

It seems a glory that nought surpasses —

Passion of angels in form and hue —

When, lo! from the jewelled heaven of the grasses

Leaps a lightning of sudden blue.

Dimming the sun-drunk petals,

Bright even unto pain,

The grasshopper flashes, settles,

And then is quenched again.